This is topic Bobcat tails in forum Cat forum at The New Huntmastersbbs!.
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Posted by Terry Hunter (Member # 58) on March 29, 2004, 05:07 PM:
Yesterday afternoon about sundown a large cat was hunting the creek behind my house.What was unusual was the tail it look to be 12-14 in long.Has anyone seen a cat with a tail that long?
Posted by Greenside (Member # 10) on March 31, 2004, 05:41 AM:
Terry
Maybe a domestic cat x bobcat cross? I assume it's possible?
Dennis
Posted by Krustyklimber (Member # 72) on March 31, 2004, 09:29 AM:
Greenside,
While hybrids of domestic a cat and a bobcat is possible, it's not likely that's what Terry saw...
A housecat/bobcat hybrid is known as a Manx cat, they have mixed coats (some the color pattern of the housecat, some the bob, and some a calico mix), and a manx almost always has a short tail.
The females run 15-20 pounds, and the males can get a little bigger than that.
If manx is bred back to a housecat you often get what are known as Kinx... a little bit smaller cat, more likely to have a domestic cat's coloration, with a morbidly crinkled tail.
When I was a kid we grew up by a guy we called "the Tiger Man" he had a live tiger in his house (the cross-eyed one that was in the Disney movie with Kurt Russell), and he raised ocelots and manx as well, and had some bobcat vixens.
There is a breed of housecat called a himilayan with markings like a bobcat, a thick body shape, that go 20+ pounds for mails too (we had a tom mouser like that, 22 pounds).
Krusty 
Posted by Cal Taylor (Member # 199) on March 31, 2004, 12:09 PM:
Sorry Krusty,
But Manx cats don't have a thing to do with Bobcats. It is not a crossbreed.
Posted by Krustyklimber (Member # 72) on March 31, 2004, 03:15 PM:
My bad, thanks Cal.
Krusty
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on March 31, 2004, 04:04 PM:
I think a bobcat tail can go maybe eight inches, but never seen anything like twelve inches long?
Don't know much about Manx cats, except the one's that I have seen were a bobcat color, and clumsy, no sense of ballance without a tail; and large.
Good hunting. LB
By the way, there was a post a short time back that delt with picking up coyotes and bobcats by the tail. I lifted a bobcat by the tail once, and it broke right off. I was peeved, never tried it again.
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Posted by Krustyklimber (Member # 72) on April 01, 2004, 06:36 PM:
Okay so I got to wondering, after Cal pointed out my memory was fuzzy...
I did some google searching and here's what I found.
A manx is indeed not in any way related to Felis Rufus, our friend Mr Bob.
They are from the Ilse of Man, duh... (off the coast of Great Britain) Thought to be decendants of castaways, from at least two seperate shipwrecks.
They were feral until domesticated in the 1800's.
There is a new breed of domestic cat highly popular here in the N.W. called a pixie bob. It is a domestic cat that has been bred to look just like a bobcat, but like the manx, it's only similarities are asthetic.
Here's some;
Then there are man made hybrids of bobcat and domestic cats, but I didn't find much information on modern practice of this (it's frowned on now among breeders to use wild animals for genetic stock, though some outbreeding of known natural hybrids is done to retain some of the recessive traits, like bobbed tails and spots).
There are also cats known as "legend cats" and they cover two catagories.
One is that the Norwegian Explorers brought cats on their ships when they came to north america, and some were left behind.
These first "legend cats" were found along the east coast of north america by early explorers as far back as Columbus. They had long tails similar to the european cats, though slightly larger, and described as the same coloration as the cougar. They were described in one shipwright's journals as "very delicious light meat"...
The other "legend cats" are from the west and are thought to be natural hybrids of domestic cats and bobcats.
Here's a couple of them;
You can see some have tails and some have bobs, since the short tail is recessive, it is thought to "grow out" over several generations. The big guy in the upper picture, Wildman, was 25 pounds at 3 yrs old.
Maybe you saw a legend cat?
Krusty
[ April 01, 2004, 06:37 PM: Message edited by: Krustyklimber ]
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on April 01, 2004, 07:38 PM:
Krusty, some of those pics resemble my cat, which is a Bengal. It's a cross between domestic and the Asian Leopard Cat. Another intersting cat, looks a little like one of your photos is what my daughter has, a Maine Coon cat.
Doesn't solve Terry's problem, though, does it? I have shot feral cats at night, marked like a bobcat, where I couldn't see the tail and was greatly disappointed, upon walking out to recover.
They can fool you, if you don't have a point of reference on size.
Good hunting. LB
Posted by Steve Craig (Member # 12) on April 05, 2004, 07:15 AM:
I used to catch hundreds of these feral cats back in the 70's and 80's. Good spots and good bobcat type markings. Finally, started skinning them, cut the last 2-3 inches of their tail off, and then sewed it back on to the hide. Stretched and dried them and sold them as a low grade southern bobcat. Usually got around $25 for them. Better than letting them lay.
Steve
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on April 05, 2004, 05:05 PM:
Dang, Steve! A hard way to put your son through Med School. Hat's off to ya. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Good hunting. LB
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